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Champions League among top sporting events of week

By Martin Green21 October 2018

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Champions League

Europe’s premier competition returns this week and there are plenty of cracking games to look forward to. The pick of the matches on Tuesday sees Cristiano Ronaldo return to his old stomping ground as Man Utd host Juventus. Ronaldo won his first Balon d’Or with the Red Devils before going on to dazzle at Real Madrid. He is now with Italian champions Juventus, and they remain unbeaten in all competitions this season. Man Utd made a sluggish start to the campaign, but they are building up momentum under embattled manager Jose Mourinho and they picked up a strong 2-2 draw at Chelsea at the weekend. Ladbrokes and Bet Victor have 6/4 on "Ronaldo to score at any time" and that looks like a really tempting bet on the superstar striker. There are some great games on Wednesday, including Barcelona v Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund v Atletico Madrid and PSG v Napoli. Bet Victor has 10/11 on Barcelona -1 Asian handicap and that looks interesting after they beat Sevilla 4-2 to move top of La Liga at the weekend.

Europa League

The Europa League is also back in business and Arsenal look well priced to pick up a home win against a struggling Sporting Lisbon side. Most of Sporting’s players canceled their contracts in the summer after fans broke into the training ground and assaulted them. They have lost two of seven league games already, including a 4-2 reverse at unheralded Portimonense last time out. The Gunners will rest players in this competition, but they still have enough quality to beat Sporting and odds of 139/100 at Marathon Bet and 13/10 at Sky Bet, William Hill and various others look attractive on in-form Arsenal team.

Sri Lanka v England

England’s white ball stars have been ripping Sri Lanka apart during this tour and they look well priced to pick up one final ODI win and to clinch T20 victory this week. Eoin Morgan’s men are the world’s number one ODI team at present and they are showing just why by delivering strong, composed performances. The Test team starts a tour of Sri Lanka on November 6, and that could be another matter entirely, but in the short format England currently reign supreme.

New Zealand v Australia

The All Blacks are expected to crush Australia in this Test and the best price you can find on them is just 2/11 at Paddy Power. But Sky Bet has 10/11 on New Zealand -15 and that looks pretty attractive, as the gulf in quality will be rather stark here. These teams last met in August and New Zealand picked up a 40-12 victory in Auckland. The week before that they beat Australia 38-13 in Sydney, so they clearly have the ability to cover such a handicap. This New Zealand team is bursting with star talent and they should be able to secure a comfortable victory.

Mexican Grand Prix

Formula 1 heads to Mexico as Lewis Hamilton prepares to bask in glory. This could be a slightly more open race than we have seen of late, and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen looks like an interesting each-way option after the young Dutchman cruised to victory in this race last year.

Premiership football

Liverpool should beat Cardiff on Saturday, and you would expect Chelsea to go to Burnley and secure victory the following day. Man Utd v Everton looks like the most exciting game this weekend, as both teams have recently been strong going forwards but also leaking goals at the back, so the goals market could be a good option to play in this one.